Our Mission: We are dedicated to increasing the level of functional literacy and self-sufficiency among the people of Clark County.

Our Vision: The Vision of the Clark County Literacy Coalition is all people of Clark County are functionally literate.

Founded in 1988 as the networking center of the Clark County Literacy Coalition and itself, a provider of adult education services, the Warder Literacy Center is located at 137 East High Street in Springfield, Ohio.

The building housing the Center was constructed in 1888 for use as the Warder Public Free Library & Reading Room. Mr.Benjamin Head Warder commissioned the firm of Shipley, Rutan and Coolidge to construct the building. The L-shaped structure is located at the southwest corner of High Street and Spring Avenue was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It is constructed from Ohio buff sandstone and trimmed with Worcester brownstone under a red slate roof. The east wing features an arcaded entrance porch; at the juncture of the wings is a tower that contains the staircase. The library featured a large reading room heated by a massive stone fireplace at one end measuring 18 feet high and 12.5 feet across. The building was dedicated in 1890 and given to the people of Clark County by Mr. Warder in memory of his parents, Jeremiah and Ann A. Warder. In plan and massing, the building is closely related to Richardson's Converse Memorial Library (1885) in Malden, Massachusetts.

When the library outgrew the facility in 1988, it moved to its current location (201 South Fountain Avenue) and offered the building to house the networking center of the newly formed Coalition.

The Clark County Literacy Coalition consists of schools, the local newspaper, labor, and various organizations united in support of literacy issues in Clark County. Some members also provide literacy education and employment skills. Services include, but are not limited to, English instruction, G.E.D. classes, instruction in reading, writing, and math, employment skills, and computer assisted learning.

The Warder Literacy Center provides:
- individual literacy tutoring for adults
- individual reading tutoring for children
- Tutor training and certification
- classes and individual tutoring in English for speakers of other languages
- Backpacks for children
- Grab bags for adult students
- computer assisted learning for adults
- preparation to enter a G.E.D. class.

This logs you into the PayPal® web page for the Coalition account. Quick, easy and your done! You will receive a thank-you letter for your tax records from the Warder Center.

DON'T FORGET - THE WARDER USED BOOK STORE

The Warder Book Store is open Monday through Thursday, 11:00 - 7:30 p.m. and during special events. The book store has used paperback and hardback books at great prices. For children, there are books in the Walt Disney series, ("Mickey finds a kitten", "Thumper's Little Sisters", "Alphabet A-Z", and others); Classics such as "Heidi" and "Alice in Wonderland"; Sesame Street stories; and a variety of Scholastic books. For older readers we have a wide selection of Romance paperbacks from the Harlequin Series and HeartSong Series. Other Romance authors in hardback include Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts. If you enjoy adventure novels, try books by Robert Ludum, Tom Clancy, James Patterson, John Grisham, Sue Crafton and Mary Higgins Clark. There are cookbooks, diet books, exercise, aging and self-help books. Or try our history, sports, and Christian book sections. Whatever you like to read, we probably have a book that you will enjoy!